If you find yourself in a position where you are making decisions for a loved one as they age, you probably have a lot of questions. One of the big ones that pops up when a situation like this occurs is regarding power of attorney.
This is not a comprehensive look at power of attorney–often referred to as POA. But it is designed to help answer some of the more basic questions for you and help get you started with making care decisions properly.
Power of attorney needs to be done through the proper legal channels. Depending on where you live, this might look a little differently. However, regardless of where you are located, an attorney can help walk you through the process. There is usually a small fee associated with this, and a notary public’s services will typically be required.
If you believe that setting up power of attorney for a loved one will be helpful, it’s important to do so early on, before dementia makes it impossible for your older family member to legally make decisions for themselves. POA can be set up years before it is ever needed, however. Even if your loved one doesn’t have any issues at this time, having this conversation sooner rather than later can be helpful. It will make it so that you already have a clearly outlined plan in place long before you ever need to put it into action.
Additionally, having the care conversation early helps to ensure that the decisions that you help make for your older family member are in line with their wishes. The more you talk about these things, the more likely you are to know their thoughts about nursing homes. The more likely you are to know how they feel about life support. The more likely you are to know what their end of life care wishes will be. These conversations aren’t easy, but they can help to make sure that you are acting in their best interest AND according to their goals and wishes.
When it comes to care, we’re on your side. We know that this is a tough time for everyone involved and that care decisions are never easy. So, whether you have power of attorney for a family member, or you’re just involved in the planning process, we would love to help you out. We offer free consultation sessions designed to help answer your questions in a low stress, no pressure setting. After all of the difficulties that you’ve been through to this point, we certainly don’t want to make getting connected to the right resources any more stressful for you.
While we are not able to give you legal advice, our trained caregivers would be happy to walk you through what the best options might be for care when it comes to the assistance that a loved one gets. We offer free consultations for precisely this reason.
Please feel free to reach out if you’d like to learn more. One of our team would be happy to help get you started and pointed in the right direction. Your family deserves the very best care possible and we would be happy to be involved in that.
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